STONED-A PSYCH TRIBUTE TO THE ROLLING STONES.

Last year, Cleopatra Records released A Psych Tribute To The Doors, where a new generation of bands covered thirteen Doors’ classics. These tracks were given a makeover by everyone from Elephant Stone, The Black Angels, Sons of Hippies, Dead Skeletons, VietNam and Geri X. The idea was simplicity in itself, and resulted in what’s one of the best tribute albums money can buy. So, it was only a matter of time before the next instalment in the A Psych Tribute series was released.

Just under a year later, Cleopatra Records released Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones. This is the long awaited, next instalment in the A Psych Tribute series. This time around, groups like Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, The KVB, Shiny Darkly, Sons of Hippies, The Vacant Lots, Celestial Burns, Pink Velvet, Pure X and The Tulips. They cover what can only be described as Rolling Stones classics, old favourites and hidden gems.

Among the Rolling Stones classics are Sympathy For The Devil, Under My Thumb, It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It), Gimme Shelter and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. Then there’s old favourites including Beast Of Burden, Stoned, As Tears Go By and Wild Horses. That’s not forgetting what can only be described as a mixture of hidden gems and left-field choices. This includes What A Shame, Sway, She Smiled Sweetly, Child Of The Moon and Take It Or Leave It. These classics, old favourites and hidden gems all features on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, which was recently released by Cleopatra Records. However, does Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, match the quality of A Psych Tribute To The Doors? That’s what I’ll now tell you.

Opening Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, is Lorelle Meets The Obsolete’s cover of What A Shame. This is a track from The Rolling Stones Now, an American album, released in 1965. It reached number five in the US Billboard 200 charts, and was certified gold. With its fuzzy, and later searing guitars, pounding drums and bounding bass, a psychedelic wall of sound assails you. In the midst of this wall of sound is a distant, mysterious vocal. It’s like being transported back to Ashbury Heights in 1967. What A Shame this captivating cover has to end.

While What A Shame was a left-field choice, The KVB decide to give Sympathy For The Devil a moody, trippy cover. Elements of psychedelia and garage rock collide head on. They transform the track. It’s very different from the Rolling Stones version on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet, which reached number three in Britain and number five in the US Billboard 200 charts. This resulted in Beggars Banquet being certified gold in Britain and platinum in America. Strangely, Sympathy For The Devil wasn’t a commercial success upon its release as a single. Despite that, it’s a favourite of many Rolling Stones’ fans, including The KVB, who transform Sympathy For The Devil.

Under My Thumb made its debut on The Rolling Stones 1966 album Aftermath, which reached number one in Britain and number two in America. Aftermath was then certified gold in Britain and platinum in America. However, Under My Thumb was never released as a single. That doesn’t matter. It’s still one of the most popular Rolling Stones of the mid-sixties. Released just as psychedelia was about to explode, Under My Thumb is perfect for a makeover by Shiny Darkly. They combine Byrdsian jangling guitars, cooing harmonies and a pounding, rhythm section with a vamping, whooping vocal. It’s almost Jaggeresque. The result is what can only be described as a strutting, psychedelic homage to The Rolling Stones.

Yeti Lane, from Paris, France, who have been keeping the flag flying for psychedelia, cover Sway, which was the B-Side to Wild Horses, released in 1971. Wild Horses reached number two in Britain and number one in America. It was a track from the classic album Sticky Fingers, which reached number one in Britain and America in 1971. Sticky Fingers was certified gold in Britain, and triple platinum in America. One of the most underrated tracks on Sticky Fingers is Sway, which is transformed Yeti Lane. In their hands, it becomes a lysergic wash of sound. Blistering guitars tremble and wah-wah, while the rhythm section, harmonies and moody vocal unite. For three minutes they combine elements of psychedelia, power pop and garage rock to create a captivating, trippy cover of Sway.

In 1974, The Rolling Stones’ released another classic album It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It). It was released to critical acclaim, reaching number two in Britain and number one in the US Billboard 200 charts. The album was certified gold in Britain and platinum in America. It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It), which Clinic cover on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones was released as a single, and reached the top twenty on both sides of the Atlantic. Clinic’s decision to cover a stonewall classic like It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It) is brave. After all, the definitive version has been recorded. Where do you take the track. The answer is, in a very different direction. The arrangement is understated and lo-fi, with the vocal best described as a dramatic, sometimes dark vamp. While this is psychedelia, it’s not psychedelia, but I like it.

Sons Of Hippies are veterans of the A Psych Tribute series. They featured on A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones. For Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, they cover Gimme Shelter, from Let It Bleed. It was released in 1969, and reached number one in Britain and number three in Britain and number one in the US Billboard 200 charts. Let It Bleed was then certified platinum in Britain and double-platinum in America. From the get-go, the Sons Of Hippies stay true to the original version. Searing guitars, the rhythm section and synths drive the arrangement along. Atop the arrangement is Katherine Kelly’s vocal. It’s yin to the arrangement’s yang, and plays an important part in this dreamy and melodic cover of Gimme Shelter where rock, psychedelia combine seamlessly.

Unlike some of the bands that feature on The Vacant Lots ignore Rolling Stones classics, and choose She Smiled Sweetly. It’s a track from their 1967 album Between The Buttons. It reached number three in Britain and number two in the US Billboard 200 charts. This resulted in Between The Buttons being certified gold in America. The Vacant Lots’ cover takes the track in a different direction. Old and new collide head on, as the music of the past and present unite. Elements of electronica, garage rock and psychedelia are combined to create a wash of sound. The vocal is the polar opposite of Katherine Kelly’s. It’s almost lacking in emotion. However, this suits the arrangement. So do the swirling, searing guitars. They play their part in a genre-melting track, where an old track takes on new meaning.

Celestial Bums also eschew the obvious, by choosing . Child of the Moon, which was the B-Side to Jumping Jack Flash. It was released as a single in May 1968, and reached number one in Britain and number three in America. Neither Jumping Jack Flash nor Child of the Moon featured on a studio album. Instead, Jumping Jack Flash featured on the compilation Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), which was released in September 1969, just after Brian Jones’ death. Child of the Moon however, remains a hidden gem in the Rolling Stones’ discography. Here, Celestial Bums give the track an uber trippy makeover. There’s even an Eastern twist, as the music veers between dark, dreamy, fuzzy and rocky and this glorious musical potpourri cocoons you.

Los Angeles based trio Tashaki Miyaki, decided that Take It Or Leave It was the Rolling Stones track they wanted to cover. This is another track from Aftermath, released in 1966. Tashaki’s cover could just as easily have been released in 1966. It’s a sympathetic cover of what’s an often overlooked track. Despair and melancholia fills the vocal. It’s accompanied by an arrangement that sounds as if it was produced by Phil Spector. Elements of folk rock, pop and psychedelia collide to create a quite beautiful, but wistful track.

Stoned was originally the B-Side to The Rolling Stones’ sophomore single, I Wanna Be Your Man, which reached number twelve in 1963. It’s not the most obvious choice for the Allah-Las to cover. Chiming, crystalline and choppy guitars join the rhythm section and occasional whoops and hollers. They produce what can only be described as a lysergic Shadowesque performance, as the Allah-Las totally reinvent Stoned.

It was inevitable that one of the groups on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, would cover (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. It’s a track you either love or loath. Released in May 1965, it reached number one on both sides of the Atlantic, and featured on the 1965 album Out of Our Heads. It reached number two in Britain and number one in America. This resulted Out of Our Heads being certified platinum in America. Fifty years later, and Pink Velvet grab (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the scruff of the neck and transform it. What follows is a blistering, melodic fusion of garage rock and psychedelia, that’s the perfect way for (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction to celebrate its fiftieth birthday.

Without doubt, Beast Of Burden, a track from Some Girls, released in 1978, is another The Rolling Stones’ oft overlooked track. It was released as a single in 1979, reaching number eight in the US Billboard 100 charts. Some Girls reached number two in Britain and number one on the US Billboard 200 charts. This resulted in Some Girls being certified gold in Britain and six times platinum in America. One of my highlight of Some Girls was Beast Of Burden, which the Stones play in a really laid back way. Pure X take the track in a different direction. A breathy vocal is central to the track. It’s accompanied by an arrangement where electro and psychedelia combine to create a new and innovative take on Beast Of Burden.

By 1965, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were on their way to becoming a successful songwriting partnership. They cowrote As Tears Go By with their manager Andrew Loog Oldham. It was the B-Side to 19th Nervous Breakdown and reached number two in Britain and America. A year later, in 1965, As Tears Go By featured on December’s Children (And Everybody’s), The Rolling Stones’ fifth American album. It reached number four in the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum. However, one of the album’s highlights has to be As Tears Go By. Two versions of As Tears Go By stand out, The Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithful’s cover. Cheval Sombre’s cover on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones makes that three. Wistful and dreamy, its sixties influenced sound stays true to the original.

Closing Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones is The Tulips’ cover of Wild Horses. The original version of Wild Horses was released in 1971, and stalled at number twenty-eight in the US Billboard 100. However, Sticky Fingers, the album Wild Horses was taken from, reached number one on both sides of the Atlantic. This resulted in Sticky Fingers being certified gold in Britain and triple-platinum in America. 0n what’s a stonewall classic album, there’s plenty of highlights. Wild Horses has to be one of them. The Tulips take a very different approach to the original. It’s dreamy, ethereal and elegiac. Quite simply, The Tulips cover of Wild Horses is like floating in your very own little fluffy cloud.

So, that’s the story to Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, the long awaited followup to the critically acclaimed A Psych Tribute To The Doors. Just under a year later, and the A Psych Tribute compilation makes a very welcome return.

Once again, a new generation of bands, including Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, The KVB, Shiny Darkly, Sons of Hippies, The Vacant Lots, Celestial Burns, Pink Velvet, Pure X and The Tulips are determined to fly the flag for psychedelia on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones. Despite pushing fifty, psychedelia is a musical genre which never goes out of fashion. That’s because psychedelia constantly, seeks to reinvent itself.

The bands on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, aren’t sixties tribute bands. That’s far from the case. These bands are innovators, who incorporate psychedelia into their own music. This includes dream pop, electro, electronica, indie pop and shoe gaze. Then there’s garage rock and the trippiest of psychedelia. Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones is a glorious musical potpourri, that pays tribute to one of the most successful bands in the history of music…The Rolling Stones.

Since 1962, The Rolling Stones have been making music. They’ve released twenty-nine studio albums, eighteen live albums and countless compilations. In total, The Rolling Stones have sold over 250 million albums. That makes The Rolling Stones rock ’n’ roll royalty. There’s a reason for that.

Over the last fifty-three years, The Rolling Stones have been musical chameleons. They’ve flitted between musical genres, releasing blues, country, folk rock, psychedelia and rock. That’s why, The Rolling Stones stayed relevant as long as they did. Now with The Rolling Stones approaching their latter years, it’s fitting, that a new generation of artists pay homage to a group who are, without doubt, rock ’n’ roll royalty.

To do that, Cleopatra Records gathered together some of the most talented up-and-coming bands. Each of them reinvent a Rolling Stone song. Some are classics, others old favourites and some hidden gems and rarities. Every one of these tracks is given a new twist. Some head in a totally different direction, whilst others stay true to the original. However, each and every track on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones has one thing in common, quality.

There’s no filler on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones. Quite the opposite. Just when you think you’ve heard the highlight of Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, something trumps it. However, just like A Psych Tribute To The Doors, Sons Of Hippies, with their cover of Gimme Shelter steal the show. The Sons Of Hippies dreamy and melodic cover of Gimme Shelter sees rock and psychedelia combine seamlessly. It’s a potent and lysergic combination. That’s the case throughout Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones.

Every band on Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones combines musical genres. The result is a captivating fusion of musical genres and influences. This makes Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones a fitting followup to A Psych Tribute To The Doors. Just like its predecessor, Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones is one of the best tribute albums money can buy. No wonder. Stoned-A Psych Tribute To The Rolling Stones, features fourteen of the best up-and-coming bands, paying homage to one of the biggest names in music, The Rolling Stones.